Thanks to all who made the Fundraiser a success, including Ludgate Farms, GreenStar Cooperative Markets, Ithaca Bakery/Collegetown Bagels, and AJ’s Delights at Triphammer Mall, for generous donations of food and wine; the Wetherbees for their traditional hospitality; Congressman Hinchey for coming to speak.
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL Group #73, ITHACA. October 2006 NEWSLETTER.
MEETING: Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2006, 7:30 pm, Kahin Center, 640 Stewart Ave., Cornell West Campus. (Take driveway downhill to building with covered entranceway, in front door. Parking allowed evenings.) Info: 273-3009.
>>>> Can’t be at the whole meeting? Come early or late, sign even a single card!
AGENDA: – Write letters on Urgent Action cases, cards, petitions: signatures are powerful!
- Report on trip to Montreal: Jo, Wayles, Janet Veale went to visit Zaki from Egypt, now studying there.
- Further report on our group’s annual fundraiser Sept. 17 at Wetherbees’.
- Who can take over the Bulletin Board with Amnesty information at the Women’s Community Building?
- Future of our TV show.
- Who will go to the Northeast Regional Meeting of AIUSA–Nov. 11-12 at Boston University?
- Reports and updates on campaigns. Action File (prisoner case in Eritrea). Other current campaigns that we may want to join.
NEXT MONTH’S MEETING: Tues. Nov. 21, 2006, 7:30, same place. Always the 3rd Tuesday. (Bring interested friends!)
Amnesty relies on the 1948 UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights: 30 articles with rights all should have everywhere. An article for October: Art. 9. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
SAMPLE LETTER: Rwanda. Journalist Dominique Makeli has been imprisoned since 1994. Authorities allege he helped with the 1994 genocide, but charges keep changing. A local tribunal cleared him, but he’s still in prison. If there is evidence, they should try him. If not, they should let him go. Please send this letter or write your own to the President at the address given (84c airmail). Extra effect: send a copy to Ambassador Zac NSENGA, Embassy of the Republic of Rwanda, 1714 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20009 (regular 39c stamp). (Source: AI Central Africa Regional Action Network, Oct. 4.)
–> From CAFRAN: please let us know how many letters you have sent. <--
POSTAGE rates: cards 24c, letters 39c. Canada, Mexico cards 55c, letters 63c. Other countries: 75c – 84c.
TV Show: Cable Channel 13. Weekly 30-minute program (premiere and 2 repeats). Tues. 9 PM, Wed. 11 PM, and Fri. 9 PM.
Info: http://www.pegasysaccess.org/; find “Amnesty International” on Channel 13 grid, or http://www.ithacaamnesty.org/. Oct.-Nov.: To be announced (watch this space!). Interested in helping out? Contact Wies, pmv4@cornell.edu or 257-3156.
IN THE AREA: Thanks to all who made the Fundraiser a success, including Ludgate Farms, GreenStar Cooperative Markets, Ithaca Bakery/Collegetown Bagels, and AJ’s Delights at Triphammer Mall, for generous donations of food and wine; the Wetherbees for their traditional hospitality; Congressman Hinchey for coming to speak.
Cornell AI meets Mondays 5:30 in 160 Goldwin Smith. Friday tabling with petitions 11-2 Willard Straight/Ho Plaza; Thursday Letter Writing 6:30-8:30 Collegetown Bagels/Robert Purcell CC alternate weeks. Write for info. Campaigns they are working on this semester: Child Soldiers, Human Trafficking, Stop Torture and a Prisoner of Conscience. Contacts: Matt Krueger mek42@cornell.edu / Katie Bowers khb4@cornell.edu.
Ithaca College AI is hosting a regional AI meeting for student groups Oct. 14 10-1 in Williams 211/218. Session on careers in human rights 3 – 5 pm, local activists speak: Laurie Konwinski, our co-coord. Jackie Swift, Shawn Martel Moore — Tompkins County Human Rights Commission, Alicia Swords on Chiapas. We’re invited; students would like to meet more of us. 6 to 10 pm, Textor 101: “LOST BOYS OF SUDAN” SCREENING (with pre-screening talk with Sudanese refugees who went through the same resettlement program seen in the film). Details chun.jihae@gmail.com.
Alternative Community School: Students for Social Responsibility write AI Urgent Action letters, show films. Contact: Rebecca Godin, rgodin@icsd.k12.ny.us.
Cornell STARS (Students for Tolerance, Awareness, and Remembering Survivors) plan a display on the Arts Quad Oct. 23-27, tabling 10 am-2 pm with letters to Congress re genocide in Darfur. Contact: Ray Bai (rb279@cornell.edu).
The International Campaign for Freedom of Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma, spearheaded by Han Lin of Ithaca, held a hunger fast outside the U.N. building for 18 days–extended to 36, calling on the U.N. to put pressure on the usurper military government of Burma (Myanmar). Actions will continue as necessary. Info: Maura Stephens, 274-3829.
Immigrant Rights Coalition meets frequently, opposes local law enforcement doing the work of federal authorities; has an e-mail list, info Pete Meyers pete@tclivingwage.org.
OUT IN THE WORLD: BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour – Human Rights in the Maldives, audio interview with Jennifer Latheef http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/01/2006_39_tue.shtml . A video reporter and the daughter of an opposition political figure, she was arrested multiple times and was sentenced to 10 years in prison in Oct. 2005 for participating in demonstrations. Pardoned in August 2006, she is now visiting Europe. We wrote appeals for her from 2003 through 2005. Further info about her: http://www.friendsofmaldives.org/fom-jennyvisitseurope.htm.
Oct. 10 was AI’s (not only AI’s) World Day Against the Death Penalty. We can still take action on this injustice: http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?ID=M7204675510620044236005265 for China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, U.S. and Nigeria.
AI: warm support to the International Criminal Court, the first body that can “try individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes when national courts are unable or unwilling to” (http://www.iccnow.org/). It is working on Uganda, DR Congo, and recently Sudan.
US ambassador to Mexico Antonio Garza wrote to some members that he shares our concern with violence against women in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. He went there in Sept. and provided help with using a new police lab in the town.
AI’s Stop Torture newsletter: http://www.amnesty.org/email/torture/issue3-eng.html points out that many Guantanamo detainees are there only because somebody in Pakistan “sold” them to get a $5000 reward from the U.S.
Our group’s new updated Web site (kindness of Govind Acharya as well as Jesse Ernst): http://www.ithacaamnesty.org/. Keep the Newsletter coming: renew subscriptions! $5/year to “AI Group #73, Ithaca,” c/o W. Browne, 206 Eddy St., Ithaca NY 14850, 273-3009. Rather get it by e-mail? Ask ewb2@cornell.edu.
co-coordinators
Charlotte Acharya,cba9@cornell.edu, 227-3471
Jackie Swift, swiftlyme@yahoo.com, 256-0050.
Ithaca, New York
October 2006
President Paul Kagame
Presidence de la Republique
BP 15
Kigali, Rwanda
Your Excellency,
Permit me to address you in connection with the case of the journalist Dominique Makeli. I understand that he is now held in Kigali Central Prison on charges connected with the 1994 genocide. It is very necessary to punish those responsible for genocide. However Mr. Makeli has been held since September 1994 and no trial has been conducted against him except for a local gacaca proceeding which cleared him.
International human rights law, like the law of almost all countries, requires that if an accused person cannot be tried within a reasonable time, he should be released.
Please use your influence to make sure that any possible accusations against Mr. Makeli are made precise and that a fair legal trial begins rapidly. If this is not possible, he should be released.
Regarding Your Excellency as an authoritative source of information about the policies and acts of the Government, I would greatly appreciate a statement about developments in this matter. Thank you for your kind attention to my request.
Respectfully,